{
  "id": "institutional-memory.path-dependence",
  "term": "institutional memory",
  "sense": "path-dependence",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 14,
  "arena": "emergence",
  "domain": "organizational knowledge",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a model that persists through time in a place where parts come and go, holding a thing inside its window by being what remains when those who knew how it was made are no longer there",
  "folk_gloss": "the collective knowledge and experience retained within an organization over time",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "model.representation",
      "persist.continue",
      "time.dimension",
      "space.extent",
      "part.relation",
      "window.range",
      "source.origin"
    ],
    "interaction": "institutional memory",
    "novel_properties": [
      "self-model"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The US Standard Gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches persisted from 19th-century railroads, inherited from English coal tramways.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The IBM 370 architecture continued running legacy code decades after its original engineers retired.",
      "domain": "computing"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Library of Alexandria preserved Hellenistic scientific knowledge long after its originating scholars had died.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "institutional memory"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — path dependence"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-institutional-memory.path-dependence"
}